By Steven Babitsky Esq.
Physicians of almost all specialties are performing independent medical exams. These include anesthesiology, orthopedics, pain medicine, chiropractic, psychiatry, neurology, ophthalmology, PM&R, cardiology, neurosurgery, and internal medicine to name just a few.
The reasons these physicians are interested in performing IMEs is that it is interesting, they can do them without any additional overhead, on their schedule, they are lucrative, and an excellent source of additional income.
The most frequent question I am asked by these physicians is: What do I need to succeed in this field?
As the vast majority of these cases are resolved based on the IME report, the short answer is do a high-quality IME report that is based on the facts and the science, and that is persuasive and defensible. It has been my experience that only a small percentage of the IME reports currently being generated meet these criteria.
A high-quality IME report should contain at a minimum :
- A detailed accurate history (preferably taken by the physicians themselves)
- A detailed precise description of the mechanism of injury (e.g. what exactly happened)
- Thorough examination of the examinee with detailed results
- Analysis of the issue of causation (e.g. did the accident result in the injuries/conditions claimed by the examinee)
- Use of research, medical journals, articles, texts, etc. to support the conclusions of the IME physician
- Analysis of the issues presented which point to the conclusions reached by the IME physician.
Conclusion
IME physicians who can generate these high quality, scientifically based reports will obtain more work, larger cases, and larger fees for their reports.
About the Author
Steven Babitsky, Esq. is part of the faculty for the SEAK IME training streaming video course:
